ELE~NTAR QUANTXTATWE Y ANALYSIS--THEORY AND PRACTICE. H. H. Willard, Ph.D., Professor of Analytical Chemistry, University of Michigan, and N.H. Furman. Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University. Third Edition. D. Van Nostrand and Company, Inc., New York City, 1940. x 531 pp. 62 figs. 14 X 22 cm. 83.25. This well-known and popular text is primarily adapted t o serve manual and brief reference hook for a first year's work in quantitative analysis. The present third edition appears just seven years after the first, and represents, as did the second, a considerable modification and improvement of its predecessor. The arrangement is as follows: Two preliminary chapters outline the scope of the subject and introduce the common laboratory operations. The third chapter discusses the balance, weighing, and calibration and introduces the first experiment (drying a salt). There are then two chapters on measurements, computations, and fundamental laws and theories. After this preliminary ninety pages come volumetric analysis, calibration, and two very thorough chapters on neutralizations. Volumetric precipitations and complex formation are fallowed by a long section (five chapters) on oxidation-reduction reactions. Gravimetric analysis is next discussed and finally electrolytic and colorimetric methods. Twenty-five pages of tables, references, etc., form the appendix, which includes a five place logarithm table. The method of presentation runs throughout from the general to the particular. First a general discussion is given, then some special method is described, its errors and difficulties discussed, and finally a detailed procedute is given. I n many cases this is followed by further special modifications of the method. The discussions are dear, logical, and instructive, and the procedures for the most part very detailed and thorough. Many of them show the effect of personal study by the authors, and in many other cases worth-while suggestions for modification are taken from the recent literature, with adequate references. The hook is definitely a text rather than a comprehensive work, but few students could master all its discussions and procedures in the course of a year. As its success has indicated, this book meets the needs of a good university course, and can also be advantageously used to accompany briefer mannsls or courses of lectures. The problems seem t o have been improved over previous
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phasizes the importance of the chemistry of alicyclic compounds. I t is good t o see the introduction of two new preparations requiring oxidation, namely, the conversion of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone, by the usual means of chromic acid, and the transformation of furfural to fumaric acid by the use of sodium chlorate in the presence of vanadium pentoxide as a catalyst. Very properly, attention is called to the possibility of an explosion in this second oxidation. I t is the belief of the reviewer that this point cannot be emphasized too strongly. An important addition to the book is the more adequate explanation of the treatment of hums and of the procedure t o be followed in the case of accidents. AWRYA. ASHDOWN
ELECTROCABMISTRY. N. A. McKcnm, B.A. (Oxon). Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London, 1939. xiii 469 pp. 109 figs. 13.5 X 21.5 cm. 15 shillings. This book does not cover some of the subjects found in other recent works on electrochemistry, nor does it include the matured opinions of a specialist who has long contributed t o research in the field. I t is a good summary of those subjects which are most commonly included in courses in physics and electrochemistry. The graduate student preparing himself for research and other more advanced readers will find t h h a convenient review of old material and a goad introduction to recent work. So little mathematics is used that the reader may expect t o understand 90-95 per cent of the book without studious effort. I t is, therefore, excellent for a rapid general survey of the whole subject before the start of serious work with research reports in the original literature. The literature study will be somewhat facilitated by numerous references. The author has been careful to distinguish between "irreversible properties," and "thermodynamic or reversible" properties. The former group inclndes functions such as conductivity, viscosity, and diffusion: the latter class includes activity and osmotic coefficients, electrode potentials, heat content, heat capacity, surface tension, compressibility, solubility, etc. This emphasis may help some readers who might otherwise miss this important distinction. Much time and effort have obi?'ausly been expended in prodncing a book so nearly complete and well arranged, and so interestraitinnr; ing as is this one. There are signs of hurry, however, in the finishing of the book. There are numerous errors in detail too trivial t o list here, such as inconsistent or incomplete units (dimensions), the use of terms not previously defined, etc. Especislly distinctive and valuable features of the book are the E L E ~ N T A RLABORATORY Y EXPERIMENTSIN ORGANIC C ~ M I S - four well-written chapters devoted to equilibria in solutions of TRY. R. Adems, Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of weak electrolytes. Illinois, and I . R. Johnson, Professor of..Organic Chemistry, The reviewer enthusiastically welcomes this addition t o the Cornell University. Third Edition. The Macmillan Com- literature of electrochemistry and the thermodynamics of salupany, New York City, 1940. xvi 420pp. 24 figs. 14 X 21 tions; he recommends the book t o grsdnate students and t o an. 8 . 0 0 . others. H e hopes that the author will, when it becomes necesThis third edition of a well-known laboratory manual con- sary, revise his book t o bring i t up to date, and in doing so, cortinnes the policy set forth in the &st edition of 1928. I t is rect the errors which now detractsomewhat from it. "designed for beginning students in organic chemistry whether they are specializing in chemistry or are merely seeking a knowledge of the subject for use in medicine, agriculture, home economics, biology, or related fields." E OF CRYSTALS.A . G. Ward, B.A., Scholar of TrinThe present volume is not so much a revision, as an extension, T ~ NATURE ity College, Cambridge. Chemical Publishing Co., Inc., New of the second edition (1933), containing fifty-seven pages more. York City, 1939. vii 114 pp. 52 figs. and 4 plates. 12 X The additional space is used, in part, for the expansion of some of 19 cm. $1.50. the introductory sections dealing with laboratory operations and technic, for the addition of discussions on theoretical and pracThis is a popular yet accurate account of the immense advances tical points, and the inclusion of procedures for the identification of the last twenty-five years in our knowledge of the structure of of compounds. crystals, largely acquired through the method of X-ray analysis The section on polymerization and depolymerization will meet developed by Sir William Bragg. After a discussion of the hisa desire, often expressed by students, t o work with modern tory of crystallography, and the theoretical aspects of molecular polymers and resins. The new syntheses of aspirin and sulfanil- structure, the author takes up ionic, homopolar, metallic, and amide will interest students who want t o learn, a t first hand, molecular crystals, and the physical properties of crystals. Exabout medicinals coming from the chemical laboratory. The periments and instructions for making models are given, which addition of syntheses for cyclohexene and cyclohexanone em- can bring the discussion home to the reader. %ORETICAL
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